Utility Dive outlines Advanced Energy United's request to FERC to strengthen its transmission reform plan, quoting Verna Mandez on the importance of legal and procedural frameworks for cooperation on transmission systems.
With some exceptions such as a New York-New Jersey collaboration, states and regional transmission authorities are making their own interests a priority, said Verna Mandez, the group’s transmission campaign director. A new Department of Energy study found “a significant need” for interregional transmission between almost all regions of the U.S.
Mandez said a “lack of precedent and poorly defined decision-making authority” might be two of the biggest threats to the large-scale transmission buildout that the clean energy transition will require.
“Legal and procedural frameworks for cooperation on the scale necessary to accomplish transmission system buildout don’t really exist,” added Mandez. “Advocates and decision-makers are left with the daunting task of determining who will take the lead – a task made even more difficult by state-level reticence to make compromises or surrender authority over economically impactful projects.”
Advanced Energy United said the lack of transmission capacity expansion thus far means that the grid can’t support the interconnection of many of the generation and storage resources that have been proposed.
Mandez said that New Jersey’s agreement to use PJM Interconnection’s state agreement approach could become “a powerful tool” for interstate and interregional transmission planning coordination by providing a model for other RTO states to follow.
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